An NPR Best Book of the Year · A T ime Magazine Most Anticipated Book of the Year “A moving
meditation on motherhood intergenerational trauma and how surface appearances often obscure a
deeper truth. . . . A stunning second novel from a writer who set the bar very high with her
first!”—Tara Conklin New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and
Community Board The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man returns
with a striking exploration of the expectations of a Palestinian-American woman the meaning of
a fulfilling life and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents. Yara Murad has worked
hard to outrun the demons of her tumultuous Brooklyn childhood. Now living far from home Yara
has achieved everything she aspired to: She is highly educated and teaches art to college
student. She's also raising two daughters with her businessman husband Fadi. Her marriage is
nothing like her parents' high-conflict relationship and she knows her life is worlds better
and freer than her mother’s. So why doesn’t it feel that way? Why does Yara experience flashes
of anger out of nowhere or a sadness she can’t name? When an incident at the college threatens
her job her mother suggests that a family curse could be to blame. While Yara doesn’t believe
in old superstitions she's shaken as she finds her carefully constructed world beginning to
implode. To save herself Yara must finally confront the childhood she thought she’d left
behind and forge her own path forward.
